The history of Madison County, Ohio, Part 29

Author: Brown, Robert C; W.H. Beers & Co., pub
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago, W.H. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 1180

USA > Ohio > Madison County > The history of Madison County, Ohio > Part 29

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After the attack on Fort Recovery, the Indians lingered in the vicinity for several days, finally retreating to Defiance. Alder says : "We remained here (Defiance) about two weeks, until we heard of the approach of Wayne, when we packed up our goods and started for the old English fort at the Maumee Rapids. Here we prepared ourselves for battle, and sent the women and children down about three miles below the fort; and as I did not wish to fight they sent me to Sandusky to inform some Wyandots there of the great battle that was about to take place. I remained at Sandusky until the battle was over. The Indians did not wait more than three or four days, before Wayne made his appearance at the head of a long prairie on the river, where he halted, and waited for an opportunity to suit him- self. Now the Indians are very curious about fighting; for when they know they are going into battle, they will not eat anything just previous. They say that if a man is shot in the body when he is entirely empty there is not half as much danger of the ball passing through his bowels as when they are full. So they started the first morning without eating anything, and, moving up to the end of the prairie, ranged themselves in order of battle at the edge of the timber. There they waited all day without any food, and at night returned and partook of their suppers. The second morning they again placed themselves in the same position, and again returned at night and supped. By this time they had begun to get weak from eating only once a day, and concluded they would eat breakfast before they again started. So the next morning they began to cook and eat. Some were eating, and others who had finished had moved forward to their stations, when Wayne's army was seen approaching. As soon as they were within gunshot the Indians began firing upon them ; but Wayne, making no halt, rushed on, regardless of danger. Only a small part of the Indians being on the ground, they were obliged to give back, and, finding Wayne too strong for them, attempted to retreat. Those who were on the way heard the noise, and hurried to their assistance. So some were running from and others to the battle, which created great confusion. In the meantime. the light-horse had gone entirely round and came in upon their rear, blowing their horns and closing in upon them. The Indians now found that they were com- pletely surrounded, and all that could made their escape, and the balance were all killed, which was no small number. Among these last, with one or two exceptions, were all the Wyandots that lived at Sandusky at the time I went to inform them of the expected battle. The main body of the Indians were back nearly two miles from the battle-ground, and Wayne had taken them by surprise and made such slaughter among them that they

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were entirely discouraged, and made the best of their way to their respect- ive homes."

Alder remained with the Indians until after Wayne's treaty, in 1795. He was urged by them to be present on the occasion, to obtain a reservation of land which was to be given to each of the prisoners, but ignorant of its importance, he neglected going and lost the land. Peace having been restored, Alder says : " I could now lie down without fear, and rise up and shake hands with both the Indian and the white man. As soon as that treaty was confirmed, I concluded my arrangements with Barshaw, and we were married in due form, according to the Indian custom. We immedi- ately made arrangements to move to the Darby, as that was then the best hunting ground in the West. We got a brood mare for each of us, packed up our goods and started for Big Darby, or Crawfish Creek, as it was then called. We stopped a little below where Pleasant Valley now is, and there commenced life in good earnest. Our cabin was built on what is since known as the Jeremiah Dominy farm, precisely where he built his house afterward. There was a fine spring of water but a few steps from the cabin." The Dominy farm is on the east bank of Big Darby, about one mile southeast of Plain City, and here, in the fall of 1795, was living the first white settler of Madison County. During the following winter, while Alder was out hunting, he discovered two white men who were lost in the forest, and they were the first he had seen in that region of country. Al- though not able to speak English, he took the strangers to his cabin, fed them and put them on the trace to Sandusky, showing them all the kind- ness in his power. He subsequently removed to the site of Plain City, on the west bank of the stream, and there was found by Benjamin Springer and Usual Osborn, in 1796, who settled on Big Darby, on land now owned by John Taylor, near the north line of Canaan Township. The summer after the treaty, while living on Big Darby. Lucas Sullivant made his ap- pearance in that region surveying land, and soon became on terms of inti- macy with Alder, who related to him a history of his life, and Sullivant generously gave him the piece of land on which he dwelt; but there being some little difficulty about the title, Alder did not contest, and subsequently lost it. According to Mrs. Sarah Norton, an early settler yet living, who is the daughter of Daniel Taylor, deceased, Barshaw had two children when Alder took her for his wife, viz., Sarah and John. Mrs. Norton says that she often played with them ere Alder and his wife parted. She also says that the squaw thought a great deal of Jonathan, and was afraid that he would leave her and marry a white woman, which fears were subsequently realized. During his stay with Barshaw, she bore him two children. both of whom died in infancy, and this they believed was a manifestation of dis- pleasure by the Great Spirit at the intermarriage of the two races. This. with other causes. finally led to a separation. Usual Osborn and Benjamin Springer taught Alder to speak English, which tongue he had quite forgot- ten. He learned very rapidly, so that he soon was the recognized inter- preter between the whites and Indians. He was now becoming civilized, and began to farm like the whites. He kept hogs. cows and horses, sold milk and butter to the Indians, horses and pork to the whites, and accu- mulated property. He soon was able to hire white laborers, and being dis- satisfied with his squaw, a cross, peevish woman, wished to put her aside,

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get a wife from among the settlers, and live like them. Thoughts, too, of his mother and brothers began to obtrude, and the more he reflected, his desire strengthened to know if they were living and to see them once more. He made inquiries for them, but was at a loss to know how to begin, being ignorant of the name of even the State in which they were residing.

About this time he entered into a hunting partnership with John Moore, who afterward was one of the officials of Madison County for many years, and a leading merchant of London. Losing the land near Plain City, he removed farther down the stream and built a cabin east of where Foster's Chapel now stands, in Jefferson Township, close to the west bank of Big Darby, on the land now owned by R. C. Stuckey. When talking one day with Moore, the latter began to question him where he was from. Alder re- plied that he was taken prisoner somewhere near a place called Greenbrier, and that his people lived by a lead mine, to which he frequently went to see the hands dig ore. Moore then asked him if he could recollect the names of any of his neighbors ; after a little reflection he replied, " Yes, a family of Gulions that lived close by us." Upon this Moore dropped his head, as if in thought, and muttered to himself, "Gulions ! Gulions !" and then raising up replied, " My father and myself were out in that country, and we stopped at their house over one night, and if your people are living, I can find them." Mr. Moore, after this, went to Wythe County and in- quired for the family of Alder, but without success, as they had removed from their former residence. He put up advertisements in various places, stating the facts and where Alder was to be found, and then re- turned. Alder now abandoned all hopes of finding his family, supposing them to be dead. Some time after, he and Moore were at Franklinton, when he was informed there was a letter for him in the post office. It was from his brother Paul, stating that one of the advertisements was put up within six miles of him, and that he got it the next day. It contained the joyful news that his mother and brothers were living. Alder, in making preparations to start for Virginia, agreed to separate from his Indian wife, divide the property equally, and take and leave her with her own people at Sandusky. But some difficulty occurred in satisfying her ; he gave her all the cows, fourteen in number, worth $20 each, seven horses and much other property, reserving to himself only two horses and the swine. Besides these was a small box, about six inches long, four wide, and four deep, filled with silver amounting probably to about $200, which he intended to take to make an equal division. But to this she objected, saying the box was hers before marriage and she would not only have it, but all that it contained. Alder says : " I saw I could not get it without making a fuss, and probably having a fight, and told her that if she would promise never to trouble or come back to me, she might have it, to which she agreed." Barshaw did not keep this promise, however, but annoyed him considerably in a number of cases. " Once," he says, "she was returning from the salt works to Sandusky, and finding no one at home she stuck her butcher knife through the bottom of one of my tin cups three times, and cut to pieces a silver- mounted bridle of mine that cost me $13." At other visits she destroyed whatever she could find in the cabin, and Mrs. Norton says that she threat- ened to kill his white wife if she ever found her alone. Thus she displayed her jealous and venomous character by seeking revenge on the innocent.

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Every two years, however, Alder went to see his Indian friends, but never visited his former wife.

In November, 1804, he started for Virginia, and John Moore accom- panied him to his brother's house, as he was unaccustomed to travel among the whites. They arrived there, on horseback, at noon on the Sunday after New Year's, 1805. They walked up to the house and requested to have their horses fed, and, pretending they were strangers, inquired who lived there. "I had concluded," says Alder, "not to make myself known for some time, and eyed my brother very close, but did not recollect his feat- ures. I had always thought that I should have recognized my mother by a mole on her face; in the corner sat an old lady who, I supposed was her, although I could not tell, for when I was taken by the Indians her head was as black as a crow and now it was almost perfectly white. Two young women were present who eyed me very close, and I heard one of them whisper to the other, 'he looks very much like Mark' (my brother). I saw they were about to discover me, and accordingly turned my chair around to my brother and said, ' You say that your name is Alder?' ' Yes,' he replied, 'my name is Paul Alder.' 'Well,' I rejoined, 'my name is Alder, too.' Now it is hardly necessary to describe our feelings at that time, but they were different from those I had when taken prisoner, and saw the Indian coming with my brother's scalp in his hand, shaking off the blood. When I told my brother that my name was Alder, he rose to shake hands with me, so everjoyed that he could scarcely utter a word, and my old mother ran, threw her arms around me, while tears rolled down her cheeks. The first words she spoke, after she grasped me in her arms, were, ' How you have grown,' and then she told me of a dream she had. Says she, 'I dreamed that you had come to see me, and that you was a little ornary looking fellow, and I would not own you for my son ; but now I find I was mistaken, that it is entirely the reverse, and I am proud to own you for my son.' I told her I could remind her of a few circumstances that she would recollect, that took place before I was made captive. I then related various things, among which was that the negroes, on passing our house on Saturday evening, to spend Sunday with their wives, would beg pumpkins of her, and get her to roast them for them again their return on Monday morning. She recollected these circumstances, and said she had now no doubt of my being her son. We passed the balance of the day in agrecable conversation, and I related to them the history of my captivity, my fears and doubts, of my grief and misery the first year after I was taken. My brothers at this time were all married, and Mark and John had moved from there. They were sent for, and came to see me; but my half-brother John had moved so far that I never got to see him at all." He told them of David's death, pointing out the spot where he was killed; visited the old homestead, the scene of his capture, and went with his friends to the place where he spent the first night with the Indians. They related to him, that about a year afterward, David's bones were found and buried. His mother had married during his long absence, and one of the young women, whom he had first seen in the house, was his half-sister.

He says : " I had intended to come back the next fall, but my mother and brother Paul got very anxious to come out with mne, and so they told me they would sell their land and go with me. I agreed to this and stayed

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another year. While roving around among their friends and neighbors, all of whom were glad to see me and hear my history, I fell in company with Mary Blont, and as she was a rather handsome girl, I fell in love with her, and proposed to marry her and take her back with me. She readily con- sented to my proposition, and we were married in the winter of 1806. In the meantime, my half-sister had married a Mr. Henry Smith, and they came to the conclusion to come to Ohio with us. Early in the spring of 1806, we all commenced to make preparations for the long and weary jour- ney. We bought one large wagon and harnessed six fine horses to it, and started out in the latter part of August, 1806." After a journey of eight weeks' duration, they arrived safely at the cabin previously erected by Alder and John Moore, east of the site of Foster Chapel. His intention was to buy this land, but during his absence to Virginia, Rev. Lewis Foster, a Methodist preacher, came out to look up a location, and finding this land with a house already built to which no one laid claim, he went to Chilli- cothe, and purchased the whole tract of 1,000 acres. Alder was living in the cabin about two months, when Mr. Foster's son notified him that his father had bought the land, and thus, through his ignorance of the white man's laws, he again lost the site of his intended home. He then went to Franklinton, and purchased, from Lucas Sullivant, the adjoining tract on the northi, which is now in the southeast corner of Canaan Township, and bordering on Big Darby. With the assistance of his brother Paul, his brother-in-law Smith, and a few other friends, he soon had a good cabin erected, and was living in it inside of eight days from the time they began the work. In later years, he expressed a desire that this cabin should be preserved by his descendants as long as it would last, and it is yet standing in good repair. His brother and brother-in-law subsequently bought land on Three-Mile Run not far from his purchase, built cabins, and in a short time the little settlement was comfortably quartered. The Indians occasion- ally came to the neighborhood and usually camped in the vicinity of Alder's cabin, as they looked upon him as one of themselves. He was always very kind to them and did much toward keeping them on friendly terms with the whites during the exciting period of the war of 1812. They consulted him as to the course they should pursue, and through his influence and advice, either took up arms for the Americans, or remained neutral.

Throughout these reminiscences, he often speaks of the Indian charac- ter; tells of their customs, feasts, games, amusements, dances, courtship, marriage, superstitions, and other phases of Indian life well known to the average student of history. He knew Simon Girty well, and says he was no such fiend as the whites make him out to be. He defends him as to the burning of Crawford, saying that as Crawford was captured by the Dela- wares, and Girty belonged to the Mingoes, he had no right to interfere, and no power to save him. He takes Girty's side all through ; says that he was considered " a true and honest man among the Indians," and that the stories of his cruelties were exaggerations. He points with evident pride to Girty having saved the life of Simon Kenton, when everything was pre- pared to burn him at the stake, and says, "I had it from Kenton's own mouth." In speaking of Tecumseh, he says : " I was well acquainted with him. I sold him a keg of rum one day for a horse; the horse got sick and died, and shortly afterward I told him he ought to give me another horse.

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HIe said he had drank the rum up and it was all gone, and he supposed I was about as well off as he was. He said the rum was of no use to either of us, and that he had suffered all the bad consequences of drinking it. He reasoned that the horse had done me as much good as the rum had done him, and perhaps more, but as it was, if I was satisfied we would quit square, and so we did." Once, when Alder was present, an Indian was boasting of the number of scalps he had taken ; Tecumseh turned upon him and called him a low, mean Indian, saying that half his scalps were those of women and children. Said he : " I have killed forty men with my own hands in single combat, but never yet have I taken the life of a woman or child." Alder says : " This great chief was a man of wonderful intellect, brave, fearless, and of pure integrity. He would do nothing but what was right, and would submit to nothing that was wrong." Ile further says : " I was very well acquainted with the Prophet, the chief's brother. He was no warrior, but a low, cunning fellow." All through this manuscript he sides with the Indians, usually alluding to their prowess, bravery and hon- esty. Ile says : " During my stay with the Indians and until after the great victory of Gen. Wayne, we were frequently attacked or disturbed by the whites. In fact not a year passed without suffering some loss on our part by attacks of the white armies. The fall of the year was generally chosen as the time best suited to march against the Indians, for the reason, per- haps, that then we had our crop raised and preparations made for winter, and if our subsistance was destroyed we would be reduced to a greater necessity at that season of the year than at others. Very many bitter, sor- rowful and hungry seasons we endured by reason of these difficulties. When all was peace, we enjoyed ourselves freely, but these terrible troubles were attended by the loss of everything the Indian holds dear on earth. Driven from place to place, our favorite hunting-ground taken from ns, our crops destroyed, towns burned, women and children sent off in the dead of winter, perhaps to starve, while the warriors stood between them and their great enemy-the whites-like a mob only to be shot down. All these things engendered animosities and encouraged retaliation. But the whites were strong and powerful, the Indians were few and feeble. This state of things will account for many if not all the cruelties charged to the Indians. I was getting to be an Indian in the true sense of the word, and felt sorely on these occasions and acted as they do-revengful and hateful to the race. Robbed of their land, their sacred graves desecrated, and the whole race driven farther and farther back into the wild forest, from land that the whites never could have had any claim to whatever. Even the theory of purchase was but another pretext to rob. We had no choice left us but to sell and take what they chose to give or be driven off and get nothing. The price offered was always governed by what it would cost to drive us off, and if the latter cost the least it would always be resorted to."

Jonathan and Mary (Blont) Alder were the parents of the following children : Paul (who married Sarah Francis), Mark (died single), Lewis (married Catherine Trimble, who died, and he again married a lady unknown to us), Henry (married Elizabeth Millikin, and settled on the old homestead, where he resided through life; his second wife was Rebecca Timmons, who survives him ; he held many of the township offices, and was County Surveyor from 1841-50, 1856-58, 1865-67 and

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1871-73; he was also County Commissioner in 1851-54), Margaret (married a Mr. Frazell), Hannah, William Foster, Rachel, Harvey Gear- hart, Eliza, Simon Sager, Ann, a Mr. Jones, Mary, John Warner, Angeline, John Betts, while Ruth died unmarried. All of this family were well known and much respected. Jonathan Alder's name appears among the first juries of Madison County, so that he early began to be a useful citizen. He became comfortably well off in this world's goods, although not rich by any means. In personal appearance, he says, when speaking of the meeting between himself and his mother : "I was a little over six feet in height, and as straight as an arrow ever was." His hair and eyebrows were as " black as a coal," his complexion dark and swarthy, his face large and well formed, denoting strength of character and firmness of purpose ; his eyes were bright and piereing, while his whole appearance, gait and actions were characteristic of the Indian. This will not be won- dered at when we consider the many years he spent among the savages. Old settlers who knew him well tell us that "Jonathan Alder was as honest as the sun," and his whole life, while living in this county, was characterized by the most rigid uprightness and straightforward dealing toward his fellow- men. In 1815, his wife's father, Adam Blont, brought his family to the settlement, and here most of them died and were buried in the Foster Grave- yard. Mr. Alder's mother died in 1817, and was interred in the same ground. On the 30th of January, 1848, he, too, passed away, leaving to his children an example worthy of the strietest imitation. His remains rest beside those of his friends in Foster's Cemetery. His widow survived him several years, first removing to Iowa, and thence to Illinois, where, at the home of her daughter, Hannah Foster, she died, and was interred in that neighborhood.

BENJAMIN SPRINGER.

In 1796, Benjamin Springer, with his wife and two sons, Silas and Thomas, also his son-in-law, Usual Osborn and wife, settled on Big Darby. They were natives of Pennsylvania, and built their cabin on land now owned by John Taylor, close to the north line of Canaan Township, and just within the limits of the same. Prior to their settlement in this county, they had resided a short time in Kentucky, whenee they removed to the Darby. Howe says that Springer came out in the fall of 1795, built his cabin, and, in the spring of 1796, brought his family. This is a mistake ; he did not come until the latter year, according to the reminiscences of Jonathan Alder, who says that Springer came to the Darby the year suceceding the treaty of Greenville, or the next year after he pitched his camp on the Dominy land. As Alder did not come until the fall of 1795, it follows that Springer did not come until 1796. Alder gives a brief history of Springer's family, and we cannot do better than to quote his narrative. After speaking of his settlement, he says : " His family consisted of himself wife and three children-Silas, Thomas, and Osborn's wife. He built the first mill on Darby. It was situated about a mile below where Pleasant Valley now is. It was poorly constructed, and only ran about six months, the first high water sweeping the dam away. It was never rebuilt. Springer lived to be eighty years old, and died on Darby. The last time I saw him. he came to my house in 1825, and took dinner with inc. After dinner, we walked out, and, at parting, he shook hands with me and said : 'This is perhaps the

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last time we shall see each other alive.' I made light of it, but he said he was in earnest, as he did not believe he would live long. He wished to carry to my mind the idea that he had some warning that his end was approach- ing. It was warm weather in the early fall, and he looked quite hale and hearty, but before winter he was dead.

" I have seen Springer's two boys-Tom and Silas-without shoes at Christmas. Tom was a great hunter, and frequently went with me on such occasions. One morning we started out early and crossed Little Darby and the Spring Fork. Late in the evening, Tom killed a fine buck, and by the time it was dressed it was dark. Tom wanted to know what we would do. I told him we would have to camp out, and he seemed very well pleased at the idea. We made a fire and roasted some of our venison for supper. Tom was rather industrious, and did most of the drudgery, getting the wood and water. Late at night, we began to talk about sleeping. Tom said as he had no blanket he would have to sleep with me. I told him that two grown-up Indians never slept together ; they are like two male bears, never found in the same hole or tree. for if they should happen to get together, they would fight, and one or the other would have to leave. . Well,' said he, what am I to do ; I have no blanket.' I told him he ought to have thought of that before he started. and that he never saw an Indian go out without his gun, knife, tomahawk and blanket. . Well,' said he, 'I do not know what I shall do if you will not let me sleep with you.' I told him we would fix our beds and he could sleep in his buckskin. I had only been teasing him, as the deerskin was, after all, the warmest thing he could sleep in. I had looked out an old tree before dark, and so I went and got a lot of bark to keep us off the ground. Tom stretched himself out, wrapped in his deerskin, and was soon snoring. I woke up in the night and found it was snowing very fast, but as Tom was still snoring I did not disturb him. When we awoke in the morning there was about six inches of snow on the ground. When Tom opened out his buckskin to get up, the snow fell on his face and scared him some, for he declared that he knew nothing of the snow until he woke up. Taking all together, Tom had the better night's rest of the two. We built a fire and roasted some of our venison, and then packed the remainder and started for home. Tom never got tired telling about that hunting trip. One morn- ing, I went out before day coon hunting, a year or so before our deer hunt. There was a heavy frost. Just after daylight, I met Silas and Tom Springer. Tom was barefooted, and I asked him if his feet were not cold. 'No,' said he, 'not much.' How the fellow could stand it and go through such a frost and not freeze his feet, I never could understand. After Tom grew up to be a man, he went out West. and I saw no more of him. After Silas

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The history of Madison County, Ohio, Part 29

Author: Brown, Robert C; W.H. Beers & Co., pub Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Chicago, W.H. Beers & co. Number of Pages: 1180

Author: Brown, Robert C; W.H. Beers & Co., pub
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago, W.H. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 1180